COMPARATIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF EPISODIC MEMORY IN PRIMATES: HIPPOCAMPAL FUNCTION

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. "Recall" is when you "bring to mind" things that are not currently present, such as when you remember all the turns you must take to get to your destination before setting out. By contrast "recognition" is when you can tell that something you currently experience is familiar, such as a given intersection where you must turn right, and is comparatively easier than recall. Many tests for nonhuman animals show that they recognize something seen before as familiar, but no previous work has shown that monkeys or other animals share the ability to recall with humans. We have discovered that rhesus monkeys remember simple shapes and reproduce them later on a touchscreen computer, an ability that may show that they can "bring to mind" images that are physically absent. The development of this new technique for studying memory in monkeys will lead to more accurate characterization our cognitive evolution. We have also documented factors that regulate memory for lists of stimuli. We have developed new techniques for interfering with memory in monkeys that show that familiar, repeated items are actively maintained in memory, while novel items are remembered well, but not using active memory. We have established a new paradigm for studying order memory in monkeys and shown that monkeys discriminate which image was viewed first. Accuracy is a function of temporal distance and recency. These studies of memory in monkeys help us understand what biological factors are responsible for the erosion of recall abilities in human amnesia and normal aging.